Displaying 51 - 60 of 141 entries.

Well well

  • Posted on July 24, 2011 at 4:27 pm

This house. I love this house. But this is one damn quirky little house. With water issues. Lots of water issues. This time around it was a leak from the well. As it turns out, we haven’t had any service done on the well in the 17 years the Husband has lived in the house, and the access to it was one of the things that was actually done right. So, remarkably, it was a bit less of a hassle than we’d thought it was going to be when the Husband first saw water sheeting onto the driveway.

Note to self: don’t talk about anything mechanical related when in bed and not quite clear on it. There’s a little bit of a difference between turning on and off the pump for the well and the water for the house. Especially when one is in the shower thinking you’ve turned ON the former, when you’ve actually turned OFF the latter. Yes…that was my Thursday morning. Gah. Not fun.

I’m grateful it’s all back to normal now, with less cost and damage to the azaleas than we’d originally thought it was going to be.

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Summer Heatwave

  • Posted on July 23, 2011 at 5:19 pm

We’re at the end of this horrific hellacious heatwave here in NJ and throughout much of the country right now. I’m grateful that we’ve managed to maintain power, which means air conditioning and computers….and the Husband’s sanity. I did still manage to get out to run some errands today, but early for me. I’m glad that Griggstown has a stand at the farmer’s market. Usually I go up to the farm itself so I can check out their fruits and veggies, but today I was grateful to just get a couple of chickens and not have to make an extra stop and get out of the car again. I can roast a chicken in the convection toaster oven and not have to heat up the house. Chicken salad for the Husband, and something for me with the thighs, maybe make some couscous to go with them. Since it would be just for me, I could even think about doing it in the microwave.

I bailed on the dry cleaners, that’ll have to wait. Tomorrow it’s ONLY supposed to get up to 93. Only 93? That’s crazy hot even for me, and I don’t mind it warm. Not sure what we’ll do about dinner tonight. I got some ground beef, though they didn’t have the all natural, and I hadn’t thought to get any from the organic farm that now sells at the farmers market. Next week I will have to, it seems, so ground beef, maybe some steaks. I’ll make some tacos at some point this week for dinner. I’ll roast a pepper when I roast the next chicken tomorrow.

For today, though, there’s some more chicken salad, some cooked shrimp, cold cuts and salad fixin’s, and pita and humus would be fine for me. Might be some other options lurking in the fridge. And fruit. I have plenty of fruit. There are peaches and sugar plums and blueberries and cherries and an orange flesh melon that was oh so sweet.

And did anyone get the name of that truck that hit me, backed up, and then rolled over again?

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Summer Supper

  • Posted on July 17, 2011 at 10:13 pm

So maybe it’s not your typical mid-summer supper, but it worked for us for tonight. Tacos with all natural ground beef I picked up from the Amish along with some shredded cheese, and some whole wheat tortillas from the supermarket. Next time maybe I’ll chop up some of the farmers market tomatoes instead of using the jarred salsa. Or maybe I’ll just remember to buy some better jarred salsa. This one was supposed to be on someone’s best of list, I think, which is why I bought it instead of what I usually buy. But I found it way too watery and it just made everything messy. Maybe if I drained the whole jar it might be useable but that’s just a hassle. Meh. But otherwise dinner was really yummy, and I think we’d do it again. Not too bad to make even in the heat of the summer.

Once that was done I roasted a quick chicken in the convection oven. I forgot the carrots today, I was in too much of a rush, but it will make chicken salad for lunch for the Husband for one day and lunch for me for one or two days during the week. Even though my work schedule is going to be messed up this week and odds are I didn’t need to make the chicken. Oh well. Maybe just take one day for me and make more chicken salad for him. We’ll see.

I just ordered a cold french press to make ice coffee concentrate. I don’t usually like hot coffee, except, weirdly, for a soy cappuccino at elements from time to time, and I think that’s mostly because they don’t do iced coffee beverages. Otherwise, year-round, my preference is for iced coffee or espresso drinks. But you can’t just throw hot coffee over ice for the most part, it just gets watery that way. You generally make a stronger coffee concentrate which you put over ice and with some soy milk and maybe a bit of flavoring. It’s part of the reason I don’t make it at home. But if I can put elements’ coffee blend into a concentrate over ice and have that most days of the week, in my nice reusable cup, yeah, I can take the effort once a week to do that. Besides, if I don’t have to go get a coffee, it’ll help keep me away from the pastries in the morning, even if I did choose carefully it was still no good even twice a week!

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Summer in NJ

  • Posted on July 16, 2011 at 3:42 pm

It’s full on summer in New Jersey, there’s no doubt about that! NOAA said it was only supposed to get into the low 80’s today, but it was at least 92 when I was out.

Today’s haul from the farmers market. First of the cherry tomatoes, sugar plums, peaches, blueberries, and eggs. At the Amish I got some cheese and cherries and a peach shake. Not to mention some steaks and all natural ground beef. Oh, and some shrimp! At Griggstown I got some plums, a chicken, a biscotti and one cookie for each of us. Lol.

After all that did a run to the supermarket for some staples, and then the dry cleaners so I can be presentable when I go out in the world. Tomorrow is laundry and maybe the other supermarket. We’ll see what it feels like after brunch.

I know I’m not supposed to have too many of the tomatoes; they’re one of those vegetables that many fibro folks don’t do well with and unfortunately that does hold true for me sometimes. But for the first ones of the season, I really will just suck it up and try not to eat the whole container in the weekend. I’ve been making a concerted effort to up my fruit intake especially over the summer when I’m able to get so much stuff fresh and local. I’ve been trying for three servings a day. I know that doesn’t seem like a lot and is definitely less than is recommended but considering I could go days without any, that’s a big step. And it’s keeping me away from the vending machines if I have something at my desk that I can nosh on at that moment.

I’m not quite sure how it’s gotten to be the middle of July.

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emotional roller coaster

  • Posted on July 12, 2011 at 10:30 pm

It’s almost harder to be on an emotional roller coaster when it’s not your own life that’s going through it!

Yesterday, I saw an old friend and her family off as they made Aliyah (moved to Israel). First it was the departure in the morning, then tracking the flight all day, then the arrival ceremony at midnight (for which I set an alarm). I managed to see the whole family get off the plane (including Maggie the wonder pup!) and then went back to sleep. Only this morning did I find out that the kids were actually interviewed, so I went and replayed the video to find that part to rewatch, and recry, through. I’m completely in awe of her and her family for doing this. It takes a special kind of person to make this move, and they’re it. Yes, you’re finally the right kind of crazy.

Today, I have a friend whose son was in a motorcycle accident. He was found next to his bike in a ditch this morning, airlifted to the hospital ICU with multiple breaks in his neck. She’s still recovering from her own rather major surgery a couple of months ago, and this is really the last thing she needed. And there’s nothing I can do for either of them but pray. I’m too far away to help in person. I’ve known her online for more than 10 years, and it’s only perhaps later this year that we’ll finally meet face to face for the first time. And yet she’s part of that extended circle to which it pains me when I can’t go to them when they’re in need, that I can’t help.

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Email charter

  • Posted on July 10, 2011 at 11:21 pm

Save our in-boxes! Adopt the email charter! http://emailcharter.org/

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Time keeps on slipping…

  • Posted on July 10, 2011 at 11:00 pm

Time keeps rushing by lately, with barely a moment to breathe. These last couple of weeks have been nuts to say the least. I’m hoping that after tomorrow things will quiet down and get back to the usual chaos. Make plans for a quiet weekend of running errands on Saturday and little else next weekend.

But the last week or so has been a whirlwind of activity. On Thursday I met up with a very dear old friend who with her family is making Aliyah, moving to Israel, this coming Monday, well tomorrow. They came in from Chicago a few days early to spend some time in NY. We were going to run an errand of importance but had to change plans since we weren’t going to make it in time. So instead we drove around Brooklyn, to a number of places down her Memory Lane, and in some cases mine too. It’s so, so hard, though, for me to think about Brooklyn or that time in my life without thinking about the one who was my best friend and how much I still her and her family, every day.

Moving on though. It was a little weird how parts of it were so EXACTLY the same as it was, and how parts of it are nothing at all like the memories. But sitting in front of The Y was downright spooky, though. That was weird. I left Brooklyn wanting Roll n’ Roaster.  Tomorrow I see them off on their flight with Nefesh b’Nefesh, and then hopefully stay up- or maybe just wake up- to see the ceremony when they land.

Yesterday I got to spend the afternoon with my girls (yay Vimmen!), and some of their little girls. Good Goddess where does that time go? I’ve known some of them more than ten years, almost fourteen years really when we stopped to think about it. That was kind of wild. So we got together for an afternoon, something we don’t do frequently enough any more. Back in the day, nothing could keep us from our weekly date with each other. Even when we worked together. And now my princess has a mini-princess, and I get to be Auntie again! And that still makes me melancholic as I miss my boys- my little man would have turned 11 last month.

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Minor aggravation

  • Posted on June 27, 2011 at 5:27 pm

There’s nothing more frustrating than getting the call from the doctor’s office that they have your lab results…and getting the message just after they close the phones so you can’t call back till the following day. ARGH!

At least they called in my Rx refill today, for which there is finally a generic available!

Better living through pharmacology…..

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Ah, nature….

  • Posted on June 26, 2011 at 9:49 pm

Tonight was the first round of the annual battle with the raccoon. It comes up to eat the outside cats’ food. I yell and chase it away.  It pokes it’s head up from under the deck. I yell at it that I’m not feeding it, and it should go away, gay aveck! So this means we need to change how we feed the outside cats just to keep away the freaking raccoon. It could be worse. At least I don’t have to worry about skunk or bear.

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Weekend Roundup

  • Posted on June 26, 2011 at 8:38 pm

First, thanks to elements for squeezing us in for a last minute, leisurely, lovely dinner in the cube Saturday night. It was TRULY appreciated and very much needed. Mattias, thank you for the swizzling! Thank you, Justin, for helping me to understand why my greatly appreciated french toast for brunch was tasting like bacon. You have no idea how thoroughly disconcerting it was. The Husband’s cardinal rule is no greens in the eggs, mine is nothing that tastes like bacon. As much as he loves it, I can’t stand it.

Next, the farmers market continues to disappoint. Maybe it’s still too early in the season (I didn’t think so), or maybe it’s that one of the vendors I’ve come to depend on doesn’t seem to be there yet this season, even though all the materials and emails say they should be. I’ll continue to go, of course, but it was a disappointment to walk away this week with just two boxes of blueberries. We’re not big veggie eaters much of the time, especially if I’m not cooking a lot which I haven’t been.  I’ve still managed to pick up some good fruits between the Amish and Griggstown, but it’s just not what I’d been hoping for. I do also have the farmers market near the office on Tuesday, which is always good for strawberries at the very least and hopefully some more shelling peas this week.

We’re starting to plan a real vacation for August. A long weekend at someplace with both a spa and fine dining. It’s hard to find some place to meet all our parameters. Maybe we’re just too picky? No, I think I just need to refine my search a bit to find what we want- and are willing to pay. We looked at the Inn at Little Washington, but to stay on site was just a bit more than we were willing to splurge for.

After that, we’ll be planning a trip to Vermont. The 3 year plan involves a move, and VT is one of the first places to consider. Aside from the ski areas. Need to find places away from all that. Otherwise maybe New Hampshire. Need land, water and solitude. Pretty much the rest is negotiable.

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